The fall CD preview
This year, Sept. 25 is the day to circle on your calendar. That's when more than a dozen major artists -- including Steve Earle, Foo Fighters, Joni Mitchell, will.i.am, Blue Rodeo, PJ Harvey, Tony Bennett and more -- are putting out new CDs.
The rest of the fall calendar is quickly getting crowded too. So crowded, in fact, that we're adding an extra page of CD reviews every week. To kick things off, here's a quick look at the biggest and best discs due this fall, along with a sidebar of key box sets.
And while you're there, start making your own list. And checking it twice.
Bruce Springsteen -- Magic
The Boss reunites with the E Street Band for their first disc in five years (and, some say, their last collaboration). Album of the year? We wouldn't be surprised. Oct. 2.
50 Cent -- Curtis vs. Kanye West -- Graduation
The beef of the fall: Fiddy vows to retire if he doesn't outsell Kanye on the first day. Wonder how much Kanye paid him to say that? Sept. 11.
Foo Fighters -- Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
If the rest of this disc rocks as hard as the leaked single Pretender, this could be Dave Grohl's biggest, baddest disc yet. Sept. 25.
Joni Mitchell - Shine
The legendary folksinger delivers her first new album in a decade. The same day, Herbie Hancock releases a Joni tribute CD. Coincidence? We think not. Sept. 25
Neil Young -- Chrome Dreams II
The original was recorded and scrapped in the '70s. This version supposedly resurrects some of those old songs, along with new material. Oct. 16.
The Eagles -- Long Road Out of Eden
Too bad they already used the title Hell Freezes Over: It would have been perfect for the country-rockers' first full-length studio album in 28 years.
Steve Earle -- Washington Square Serenade
The backwoods meet the Big Apple. Roots-rocker Earle tones down the politics and gets personal on this folksy CD, singing the praises of his newly adopted hometown: New York City. Sept. 25
The Hives -- Black and White Album
Howlin' Pele Almqvist and his Swedish garage-rock titans squeeze into their matching suits to crank it up and crank it out once again. Oct. 9.
John Fogerty -- Revival
Can the original roots-rocker reclaim his past? We'll see. Either way, you just know somebody's going to sue him over that title. Oct. 2.
PJ Harvey -- White Chalk
Word is that Polly Jean wrote most of this disc on piano instead of guitar. Which presumably means we'll see fewer upskirt pix from her next tour. Sept. 25.
will.i.am -- Songs About Girls
The Black Eyed Peas mastermind releases his next collection of ringtones ... er, songs. Sept. 25.
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss -- Raising Sand
The legendary Led Zep frontman teams up with the rootsy singer- songwriter. Could be the most interesting matchup of the fall. Oct. 23.
Mariah Carey -- Illusions: The Butterfly Within
Uh-oh. Is it just us, or does that title sound like Mariah's gone off her meds again? Nov. 20
Guns N' Roses -- Chinese Democracy
Ha! Not a chance. But we had you going for a second there, didn't we?
BOX SETS
The box set everyone's waiting for -- Neil Young's 10-disc Archives Vol. 1 -- was finally due this fall after more than a decade in the works. But in typical Young fashion, it's now been pushed back to Valentine's Day. Oh, well. Here are five others to spin while you wait.
Emmylou Harris -- Songbird
Rare Tracks and Forgotten Gems The angel of Americana assembled this five-disc collection, which has 78 rarities and unreleased cuts, along with a DVD of live performances. Sept. 18
Billie Holiday -- Lady Day
The Master Takes and Singles The most tragic figure in jazz -- and that's saying something -- gets her due in a four-disc anthology featuring 79 of her finest moments. Sept. 25
Frank Sinatra -- A Voice in Time (1939-1952)
This four-disc, 80-song set follows Old Blue Eyes from his first solo recordings to his final tracks for Columbia. Sept. 25
Bob Dylan -- Dylan
Fans got to vote on the 51 tracks that form this three-disc retrospective, which is packaged with postcards, mini vinyl sleeves and a 40-page booklet. Oct. 2
The Heavy Metal Box -- Various Artists
Headbangers will have a ball with this 70-song anthology from Rhino -- which comes in a box shaped like a Marshall amp, with a knob that goes to 11. Oct. 2
The Brit Box -- Various Artists
Also from Rhino, this four-disc set of Britrock classics comes in a foot-high replica of an English phone booth -- with a working light! Oct. 2
The key CD releases due between now and Christmas (all information subject to change):
Sept 11
Black Francis -- Bluefinger
Kenny Chesney -- Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates
Elvis Costello -- My Aim is True (Deluxe Edition)
Ani DiFranco -- Canon
50 Cent -- Curtis
Go! Team -- Proof of Youth
Joe Henry -- Civilians
Hot Hot Heat -- Happiness Ltd.
The Proclaimers -- Life With You
Kanye West -- Graduation
Ann Wilson -- Hope & Glory
Sept 18
Babyface -- Playlist
James Blunt -- All the Lost Souls
Johnny Cash -- Best of Johnny Cash TV show (DVD)
Chamillionaire -- Ultimate Victory
The Donnas -- Bitchin
Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene) -- Spirit If ...
Dropkick Murphys -- The Meanest of Times
Gloria Estefan -- 90 Millas
Mary Gauthier -- Between Daylight & Dark
David Gilmour -- Live at Royal Albert Hall (DVD)
Hard-Fi -- Once Upon a Time in the West
Emmylou Harris -- Songbird: Rare Tracks and Forgotten Gems (Box)
Mark Knopfler -- Kill to Get Crimson
Diana Krall -- The Very Best of
Alvin Lee -- Saguitar
Love is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets -- Various Artists (Box)
Barry Manilow -- The Greatest Songs of the '70s
Reba McEntire -- Reba Duets
Ministry -- The Last Sucker
Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) -- Trees Outside the Academy
Mya -- Liberation
New Found Glory -- From the Screen to Your Stereo Pt. 2
Otis Redding -- Dreams to Remember: The Legacy of (DVD)
Simon & Garfunkel -- Live 1969
The Simpsons -- Testify
KT Tunstall -- Drastic Fantastic
Twista -- Adrenaline Rush 2007
U2 -- Popmart Live from Mexico City (DVD)
Eddie Vedder -- Into the Wild (Soundtrack)
Sept 25
Devendra Banhart -- Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
Tony Bennett -- Ultimate American Songbook
Blue Rodeo -- Small Miracles
Miles Davis -- The Complete on the Corner Sessions (Box)
The Doors -- The Very Best of
Down -- Down III: Over the Under
Steve Earle -- Washington Square Serenade
Melissa Etheridge -- The Awakening
Foo Fighters -- Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
Give Us Your Poor -- Various Artists
Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino -- Various Artists
Herbie Hancock -- River: The Joni Letters
PJ Harvey -- White Chalk
HIM -- Venus Doom
Billie Holiday -- Lady Day: The Master Takes and Singles (Box)
Iron and Wine -- The Shepherd's Dog
Chaka Khan -- Funk This
Nellie McKay -- Obligatory Villagers
Bill Medley -- Damn Near Righteous
Joni Mitchell -- Shine
Meshell Ndegeocello -- The World Has Made Me the Man of my Dreams
Pearl Jam: Picture in a Frame (DVD)
Queen Latifah -- Trav'lin Light
Brian Setzer Orchestra -- Wolfgang's Big Night Out
Billy Joe Shaver -- Everybody's Brother
Frank Sinatra -- A Voice in Time (1939 - 1952) (Box)
Stars -- In Our Bedroom After the War
Status Quo -- In Search of the Fourth Chord
Supagroup -- Fire for Hire
Sweet Honey in the Rock -- Experience ...101
Randy Travis -- Songs of the Season
Scott Walker -- And Who Shall Go to the Ball? And What Shall Go to the Ball?
Weakerthans -- Reunion Tour
will.i.am -- Songs About Girls
Oct. 2
The Beatles -- Unseen Beatles (DVD)
The Brit Box: Indie U.K., Shoegaze and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium -- Various Artists
Brooks & Dunn -- Cowboy Town
Ian Brown (Stone Roses) -- The World is Yours
Boyz N Da Hood -- Back Up N Da Chevy
Peabo Bryson -- Missing You
David Byrne -- Live From Austin Tx. (DVD)
Cake -- B-Sides & Rarities
J.J. Cale -- Rewind: Unrelased Recordings (Box)
The Cult -- Born Into This
Dashboard Confessional -- The Shade of Poison Trees
Celine Dion -- These are Special Times (Collector's Edition)
Bob Dylan -- Dylan (Box)
John Fogerty -- Revival
Merle Haggard -- Bluegrass Sessions
Heavy Metal Box -- Various Artists
Faith Hill -- The Hits
Mick Jagger -- The Very Best of
Elton John -- Elton 60: Live at Madison Square Garden (DVD)
Annie Lennox -- Songs of Mass Destruction
matchbox twenty -- Exile on Mainstream
Megadeth -- Warchest (Box)
The Most Serene Republic -- Population
Prong -- Power of the Damager
LeAnn Rimes -- Family
The Sadies -- New Seasons
Siouxsie -- Mantaray
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Magic
Stax--Volt Revue Live in Norway 1967 -- Various Artists (DVD)
Oct. 9
Avenged Sevenfold -- Avenged Sevenfold
David Banner -- Greatest Story Ever Told
Bizarre -- Blue Cheese 'n' Coney Island
Alter Bridge -- Blackbird
Vanessa Carlton -- Heroes & Thieves
Chicago -- The Best of Chicago 40th Anniversary
Eric Clapton -- Complete Clapton
Fiery Furnaces -- Widow City
Deborah Harry -- Necessary Evil
Hives -- Black & White Album
Engelbert Humperdinck -- The Winding Road
Kid Rock -- Rock n Roll Jesus
Jennifer Lopez -- Brave
Bob Mould -- Circle of Friends: Live at 9:30 (DVD)
Willie Nelson -- Willie Nelson (Box)
LeAnn Rimes -- Family
She Wants Revenge -- This is Forever
Oct. 16
AC--DC -- Plug Me In (DVD Box)
Eve -- Here I Am
Robyn Hitchcock -- I Wanna Go Backwards (Box)
Jimmy Eat World -- Chase This Light
Toby Keith -- A Classic Christmas
R.E.M. -- Live DVD
Santana -- Ultimate Santana
Nicole Sherzinger -- Her Name is Nicole
Shaggy -- Intoxication
Soulsavers -- It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land
Angie Stone -- The Art of Love & War
Underworld -- Oblivion With Bells
Dan Wilson -- Free Life
Neil Young -- Chrome Dreams II
Oct. 23
Angels & Airwaves -- I-Empire
Ashanti -- The Declaration
Babyshambles -- Shotter's Nation
Coheed and Cambria -- No World for Tomorrow
David Gahan -- Hourglass
Alicia Keys -- As I Am
Alison Moyet -- The Turn
Robert Plant + Alison Krauss -- Raising Sand
Reliant K -- Let it Snow, Baby ... Let it Reindeer
Lionel Richie & The Commodores -- Number Ones
Seether -- Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces
Serj Tankian -- Elect the Dead
Dwight Yoakam -- Dwight Sings Buck
The Temptations -- Back to Front
Carrie Underwood -- Carnival Ride
Ween -- La Cucaracha
Rob Zombie -- Zombie Live (CD--DVD)
Oct. 30
Backstreet Boys -- Unbreakable
Natasha Bedingfield -- N.B.
Bob Dylan -- Live at Newport (DVD)
The Eagles -- Long Road Out of Eden
Gram Parsons -- Archives Vol. 1: The Flying Burrito Brothers Live at the Avalon 1969
Buck 65 -- Situation
Nov. 6
Garth Brooks -- The Ultimate Hits
Chris Brown -- Exclusive
Jimmy Buffett -- Live in Anguilla (CD--DVD)
Counting Crows -- Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings
Duran Duran -- Red Carpet Massacre
Wyclef Jean -- Carnival II
Spice Girls -- Greatest Hits
James Taylor -- One Man Band (CD--DVD)
Stevie Ray Vaughan -- Solo Sessions & Encores -- Pride & Joy (DVD)
Nov. 13
Boyz to Men -- Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA
Dillinger Escape Plan -- Ire Works
Celine Dion -- The Woman in Me
Goo Goo Dolls -- Greatest Hits Vol. 1
Led Zeppelin -- Mothership
Paul McCartney -- The McCartney Years (DVD)
Ja Rule -- The Mirror
Seal -- System
Wu-Tang Clan -- The 8 Diagrams
Trisha Yearwood -- Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love
Nov. 20
Sebastian Bach -- Angel Down
Mariah Carey -- Illusions: The Butterfly Within
Daft Punk -- Alive 2007
Jennifer Hudson -- TBA
Led Zeppelin -- Song Remains the Same (DVD)
Lupe Fiasco -- The Cool
Jordin Sparks -- TBA
Dec. 4
Foxy Brown -- Brooklyn's Don Diva
Primal Scream -- TBA
Dec. 18
Q-Tip -- The Renaissance
Fall music DVD preview
Not all the best discs this fall go in your CD player. Here are the key music DVDs destined for your home theatre.
Johnny Cash -- Best of the Johnny Cash
TV Show What could be better than two DVDs of vintage Cash? How about guests like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Ray Charles, CCR, Neil Diamond, Derek and the Dominos and more? Sept. 18
Otis Redding -- Dreams to Remember: The Legacy
More than a dozen performances by the late soul giant -- including a TV appearance taped less than 24 hours before his death. Sept. 18
The Ramones -- It's Alive 1974 - 1996
Hey, ho, let's go watch four hours of classic and previously unseen live footage from the Noo Yawk punk bruddas. Oct. 2
AC/DC -- Plug Me In
If you want blood, you'll get in on this three-disc set with more than seven hours of clips from the Aussie rockers' entire career. Oct. 16
Bob Dylan -- The Other Side of the Mirror: Live at Newport
Zimmy and his acoustic guitar get their folk on at the 1963 edition of the long-running U.S. music fest. Oct. 30
Paul McCartney -- The McCartney Years
Big Mac empties the vault for this this three-disc set of live cuts and videos from his post-Beatles era. Nov. 13
Led Zeppelin -- The Song Remains the Same
Maybe it does ... but this version of the ultimate '70s rock movie comes with four previously unseen tunes. Nov. 20
New "Blade Runner" cut is "how it should have been"
VENICE (Reuters) - Twenty-five years after "Blade Runner" was panned by critics and pulled from theaters, British director Ridley Scott savors revenge with the final cut of the science-fiction film now considered a cult classic.
Presenting the new version of what he considers his most accomplished movie, Scott recalled the difficulties he had when he first pitched the work to Hollywood.
"I was a new kid on the block in Hollywood, so driving to those studios every day was a magical mystery tour. But it was hard, the whole process of making the movie became quite difficult," he told reporters at the Venice film festival after a press screening.
"I wasn't used at that point in my career to having too many cooks in the kitchen, and I think there were many people who started to get involved.
"So out of it came a hybrid version of what I'd originally intended. Consequently ... we had a bad opening, bad previews, confused previews. I was killed by some critics ... then I thought it would be gone away for ever," Scott said.
The futuristic thriller is set in the year 2019 and follows policeman Deckard (Harrison Ford), a "blade runner" trying to catch and kill four human replicants who have escaped from a space-based colony.
The response at early sample screenings before the official release in June 1982 was so weak that the producers forced Scott to add voice-overs to the film and change the final scene to make it a more "happy ending."
"I thought I'd really nailed it, I really thought I'd nailed it. And the person I used to show it to was my brother (director Tony Scott). And my brother, he loved it so much. Then we preview, and the previews are really, really bad, and my confidence is really dented," said Scott.
The reworking of the film led to "voice overs which started to explain what was about to happen, who the characters were and who was going to do what to who, which is the antithesis of a good movie making process," he said.
CULT MOVIE
Despite the changes and two Oscar nominations, bad reviews and the almost simultaneous release of Steven Spielberg's hugely popular "E.T." ended the theater run of "Blade Runner" prematurely.
Yet the film eventually achieved cult status through re-issue on television and home video.
Scott, 69, said he had almost forgotten about it until he saw clips on music television channel MTV and realized that his film "was having a strong influence on younger generations."
Over the years, five versions of the film have been released, including a director's cut in 1992. But Scott said the "Final Cut" -- which will be issued as a collector's DVD edition later in the winter -- was "really as it was intended to be."
"A good film is like a good book, you might go to the shelf and take it off and revisit it. There are not a lot of films I can do that with from my collection of material," said Scott, whose other titles include international hits such as the first "Alien," "Thelma & Louise" and "Gladiator."
At present, Scott is working on "Body Of Lies," one of several Hollywood movies on the war in Iraq due for release in the next few months. But he said he would like to make another science fiction film.
"I am continuously looking for that so if anyone has got a science fiction script in their briefcase, give it to me."
Movie studios bask in blockbuster summer
LOS ANGELES - Hollywood lived its own second-chance "Rocky" story this summer as a business that looked to be going down for the count two years ago rebounded with record revenue and an unparalleled string of blockbuster hits.
The movie industry had its first $4 billion summer and will finish with a haul of about $4.15 billion from the first weekend in May through Labor Day, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.
That was up 8 percent from last summer and surpassed the previous high of $3.95 billion in summer 2004.
Hollywood did not set a movie attendance record, though. Factoring in annual rises in admission prices, about 606 million tickets were sold this summer, up 3 percent from 2006. But the season was only the sixth-best for modern Hollywood, whose biggest summer for attendance since the golden age of the 1930s, '40s and '50s came in 2002, when 653.4 million tickets were sold, according to Media By Numbers.
Still, it was a sharp turnaround from summer 2005, when attendance plunged 11.5 percent compared to the previous summer and critics predicted the movie industry would continue to decline as consumers turned to home theaters, video games and other entertainment choices.
"Everyone should be very happy with the result. The movie industry is alive and well, in comparison to maybe what was being said a few years ago," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony, which started the summer with a record-breaking $151.1 million opening weekend for "Spider-Man 3" and also released "Superbad," which is on its way to becoming a $100 million hit.
"Spider-Man 3" was quickly followed by DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek the Third" and Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," the third installments in those three franchises all shooting past $300 million domestically.
It was the first summer ever to start with three such huge blockbusters, yet Hollywood lost momentum in June. The month had hits with Universal's "Knocked Up" and 20th Century Fox's "Live Free or Die Hard" and "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer."
Though packing in solid audiences, the star-studded Warner Bros. sequel "Ocean's Thirteen" and Universal's "Evan Almighty," a follow-up to the blockbuster "Bruce Almighty," failed to live up to their predecessors, contributing to a soft box-office month.
Then Disney's "Ratatouille," Paramount's "Transformers" and Warner's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" reignited movie fever. Quickly following were hits such as Universal's "The Bourne Ultimatum," New Line's "Hairspray" and "Rush Hour 3" and 20th Century Fox's "The Simpsons Movie," providing a surge to the second half of summer, when the movie business usually slows down as fall approaches.
While there were a couple of box-office underachievers, Hollywood was conspicuously free of outright bombs this summer, unlike two years ago, when the season was littered with flops such as "The Island," "Stealth" and "The Bad News Bears."
"It's a tribute to the fact that we as a collective group paid attention to the audience and made sure that what we put out was satisfying," said Chris Aronson, senior vice president of distribution for 20th Century Fox. "At the end of the day, it says that if it's good, they're going to come. The demise of the movie business is very premature. It's a healthy business as long as the quality of the movies is there."
For the full year, movie revenues are up 7 percent and attendance has risen 2.5 percent compared to last year.
But the movie business is fickle, and that momentum could falter through the fall and holidays, when the film schedule is unusually barren of big franchise flicks.
The one major sequel is "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," but that does not come out until late December. If Hollywood hopes to maintain its strong year, audiences will have to turn out in big numbers for such original films as Johnny Depp's musical "Sweeney Todd," Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig's fantasy "The Golden Compass" and Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe's crime drama "American Gangster."
"Look how important sequels were to summer of 2007. If we're counting on that for the fall and holiday season, we're going to be out of luck," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. "It's going to be about originality having to win out over franchise films."
Originality certainly had its place over the summer, with such R-rated comedies as "Knocked Up" and "Superbad." Both came from the same creative team, with Judd Apatow ("The 40-Year-Old Virgin") directing "Knocked Up" and producing "Superbad."
Apatow has found big-screen success with the sort of smart comedy that failed on television, as networks quickly pulled the plug on his critically acclaimed shows "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared."
"It makes me feel like I was not crazy for yelling and crying at everybody when those shows got canceled," Apatow said. "I'm always happy to have these films do well enough that they'll just let me make another one. So everything else is gravy."